Thanks for the detailed feedback and kind words!
I agree that the discontent system could be somewhat ignored at least from an attacking standpoint. One of the issues is that even when it works to break up the enemy, when you are about to lose, you still end up losing because the AI will prioritize weaker targets. So that's something I need to work on and balance better. I'm not sure what you mean by fully random and more control?
Hmm, on this point I think the bigger issue I have is that at a certain point winning becomes impossible with how strong the dominant player is. In this case, you do feel very small and weak but also that it's not reversible. I would like to somehow change the combat to allow you to be more strategic, where it's not just bigger numbers win. Potentially through the discontent mechanic or through actual troop stacks moving around or both.
Yeah, it was ambitious lol, but I could not help myself after hearing the theme and having a preference for strategy games.